PanicumJ] 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
729 
along the more or less tomentose junction with the blade and the 
long-bearded nodes ; ligules short, membranous, ciliate ; blades 
linear-lanceolate, gradually tapering to an acute point, 7 in. by § in., 
flat, somewhat soft, loosely and softly and sometimes very sparingly 
hairy, particularly below, hairs very fine from minute tubercles, 
margins cartilaginous, rigidly ciliolate, primary nerves about 5 on 
each side. Panicles ovate in outline from an acuminate base, about 
10 in. by 4 in. ; common axis subangular, smooth below, upwards 
scaberulous ; lowest branches pseudo-verticillate, 4-nate, the follow- 
ing scattered or 3-2-nate, up to 5 in. long, obliquely erect, undivided 
for 1-J in., then bearing scattered lax racemes up to over 1J in. long, 
filiform, flexuous, scaberulous ; pedicels subcapillary, unequal, the 
longest up to 6 lin. long, with fine white hairs below the slightly 
thickened tips. Spikelets elliptic to ovate-oblong in outline, acute 
to subobtuse, IJ-lf lin. long, very pale, tomentose all over. Glumes 
very thin, densely covered with soft hairs ; lower rotundate- ovate, 
obtuse, hyaline, one-third to half the length of the spikelet, faintly 
1 -nerved ; upper corresponding to the spikelet in length and outline, 
finely 5-nerved. Lower floret barren (or ?) : valve very similar 
to the upper glume ; valvule oblong, subacute, shorter than the 
valve, with a few hairlets from the keels. Upper floret <J>, oblong, 
subacute, minutely hairy from the tip, 1 lin. long, straw-coloured : 
valve and valvule papery, faintly transversely rugose, the valve 
faintly 5-nerved ; anthers f lin. long. 
Mozambique Distr. Portuguese East Africa : Boruma, Menyharth , 898 ! 
85. P. microthyrsum, Staff. Perennial (?), up to 2 ft. high from a 
long prostrate base. Culms long-ascending, many-noded, freely 
rooting from the nodes of the prostrate base, much branched below, 
with the branches barren or flowering, terete, finely pubescent, 
internodes exserted, mostly about 1 in. or the uppermost up to 3 in. 
long. Leaf-sheaths subherbaceous, finely and loosely hairy to hirsute 
(upper sheaths of barren shoots), finely striate, the lower loose and 
very short, and those of the base early decaying, the upper longer, 
tight and terete ; ligules very short, membranous, truncate, ciliate ; 
blades linear-lanceolate from a rounded and much constricted base, 
tapering to an acute point, 1J to almost 2 in. by 2-3 lin., obliquely 
erect, flat, thin, finely and loosely hairy to subglabrescent, midrib 
and primary lateral nerves (about 3 on each side) very fine, distinct 
only below, cross- veins none. Panicles exserted, erect and at length 
rather rigid, 2 to over 3 lin. long, contracted or some of the longer 
branches more or less spreading, divided to the fourth degree ; common 
rhachis subfiliform, terete or angular, like its principal divisions more 
or less finely and loosely hairy, but smooth, lower internodes J-l in. 
long with a short one thrown in here and there, the upper rapidly 
decreasing in length ; lower primary branches up to over 1 in. long, 
finely filiform, at length like all the others very rigid, all branched 
